How to subtract one text cell from another in Excel? - excel

I have two text cells in Excel as shown below which contains strings (A1 and A2), I am trying to remove A2 cell characters from A1 cell string and store the result in A3.
I have tried using few functions like SEARCH(), TEXT(), RIGHT() .. but couldnt achieve what I would need as result.
I could do this easily using any programming language (Python, C, etc.,) - just need a loop and couple of string functions. But couldn't figure out the way to get the same using Excel Formula.
Any thoughts how can we get this?

Doing this via a UDF would be pretty straightforward. Basically just loop through the ins character by character and use replace() to swap the character out with nothing;
Function textSubtract(startString As String, subtractString As String) As String
'Function to subtract characters in one string from another string
'Loop through every character in subtractString
Dim charCounter As Integer
For charCounter = 1 To Len(subtractString)
'Replace out the character in startString
startString = Replace(startString, Mid(subtractString, charCounter, 1), "")
Next charCounter
'Return
textSubtract = startString
End Function
Then you can call it like:

In B2 enter:
=MID($A$2,COLUMN()-1,1)
and copy across (this isolates the characters). In B3 enter:
=SUBSTITUTE($A$1,B2,"")
In C3 enter:
=SUBSTITUTE(B3,C2,"")
and copy across (this removes each character):

Related

Check if cell contains other characters than a-z; 0-9

I am searching for a way in excel to check a cell for other characters than the alphabet a-z, numbers 0-9 and the character "-"
In column "A" I have a list of product names like
A1: samsung-s7-black
A2: apple-phone-6-silver
A3: huawei-p9-limited-edition!
In column "B" I would like to get the following info
B1:
B2:
B3: !
Basically I am looking for a "negative" search in which i don't define which characters are not allowed but more which characters are allowed in my cell and output the characters that do not match. If this could be done without VBA even better.
If you have Office 365 / Excel 2016, you can use the TEXTJOIN function in an array formula:
B1: =TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IF((CODE(MID(A3,seq,1))>=97)*(CODE(MID(A3,seq,1))<=122)+(CODE(MID(A3,seq,1))=45)+ISNUMBER(--MID(A3,seq,1))=1,"",MID(A3,seq,1)))
Since this is an array formula, you need to "confirm" it by holding down ctrl + shift while hitting enter. If you do this correctly, Excel will place braces {...} around the formula as observed in the formula bar
seq is a Name'd formula that refers to:
=ROW(INDEX(Sheet1!$1:$65535,1,1):INDEX(Sheet1!$1:$65535,LEN(INDIRECT("RC[-1]",FALSE)),1))
Note that we use the RC version of INDIRECT so the formula needs to be placed in the adjacent column of the string being tested.
Oh, and if you have mixed case in your actual data, replace A1 in the formula with =LOWER(A1)
=TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,IF((CODE(MID(LOWER(A1),seq,1))>=97)*(CODE(MID(LOWER(A1),seq,1))<=122)+(CODE(MID(LOWER(A1),seq,1))=45)+ISNUMBER(--MID(LOWER(A1),seq,1))=1,"",MID(LOWER(A1),seq,1)))
If you do not have the TEXTJOIN function, you could do a nested SUBSTITUTE or use a VBA solution.
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(LOWER(A1),"a",""),"b",""),"c",""),"d",""),"e",""),"f",""),"g",""),"h",""),"i",""),"j",""),"k",""),"l",""),"m",""),"n",""),"o",""),"p",""),"q",""),"r",""),"s",""),"t",""),"u",""),"v",""),"w",""),"x",""),"y",""),"z",""),"0",""),"1",""),"2",""),"3",""),"4",""),"5",""),"6",""),"7",""),"8",""),"9",""),"-","")
Here's a VBA solution. Put this in a workbook module, and you can call with =remove_alphanumeric(A1)
Function remove_alphanumeric(InputString As String) As String
Dim i As Integer, strLen As Integer
Dim tmp_str As String, final As String
final = ""
i = 1
strLen = Len(InputString)
For i = 1 To strLen
tmp_str = Mid(InputString, i, 1)
If InStr(1, "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789-", tmp_str) = 0 Then final = final + tmp_str
Next
remove_alphanumeric = final
End Function

Split text into different columns from the right

I have a string of alpha-numeric text that is in one cell of Excel, using v2016. the text is similar to: ECN 6120 012 MMR 12195 201481
I have used variants of the "search" and "find" and "trim" to get the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and last groups of text into individual cells.
I need to get the second to last group of numbers but it needs to be grabbed from the right because the 'MMR' sometimes is not present.
Any ideas?
With data in A1, in B1 enter:
=TRIM(MID(SUBSTITUTE($A1," ",REPT(" ",999)),COLUMNS($A:A)*999-998,999))
and copy across:
You could use a UDF to do this.
In VBE, create a new module and drop this code in:
Function strtok(strIn As String, strDelim As String, intToken As Integer) As String
strtok = Split(strIn, strDelim)(intToken - 1)
End Function
You can use this on your sheet then by using formula:
=strtok(A1, " ", 4)
To get the 4th word in that cell.

How would I get only the numbers from excel

How would I extract all the numbers from a cell, so for example A1 cell contains: "AA59" I would like the formula to extract 59 and ignore AA. I can use =if(right(A1),2) formula but if A1 contains value AA5 then it will select last two characters (which is A5), so this is wrong?
Here is a native worksheet formula solution. It's a little inelegant compared to a VBA user-defined-function, but is a standard (non-array) formula and looks more complex than it actually is.
      
The formula in B21 is,
=MID(A1, MIN(INDEX(ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1)))+((CODE(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1))<48)+(CODE(MID(UPPER(A1),ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1))>57))*1E+99,,)), 99)
Fill down as necessary. Wrap the whole thing in a VALUE(...) function or precede MID with a double unary (aka double minus or --) to convert the text to a true number.
As an alternative, consider the Array Formula:
=--MID(SUMPRODUCT(--MID("01"&A1,SMALL((ROW($1:$300)-1)*ISNUMBER(-MID("01"&A1,ROW($1:$300),1)),ROW($1:$300))+1,1),10^(300-ROW($1:$300))),2,300)
to extract digits from a mixed cell:
Array formulas must be entered with Ctrl + Shift + Enter rather than just the Enter key.
If you are always trying to get a single or double digit number from the end of the string try this version:
=LOOKUP(100,RIGHT(A2,{1,2})+0)
try this macro
Function RakamCikart(Txt As String) As String
With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
.Global = True
.Pattern = "[0-9]"
RakamCikart = .Replace(Txt, "")
End With
End Function

How to merge rows in a column into one cell in excel?

E.g
A1:I
A2:am
A3:a
A4:boy
I want to merge them all to a single cell "Iamaboy"
This example shows 4 cells merge into 1 cell however I have many cells (more than 100), I can't type them one by one using A1 & A2 & A3 & A4 what can I do?
If you prefer to do this without VBA, you can try the following:
Have your data in cells A1:A999 (or such)
Set cell B1 to "=A1"
Set cell B2 to "=B1&A2"
Copy cell B2 all the way down to B999 (e.g. by copying B2, selecting cells B3:B99 and pasting)
Cell B999 will now contain the concatenated text string you are looking for.
I present to you my ConcatenateRange VBA function (thanks Jean for the naming advice!) . It will take a range of cells (any dimension, any direction, etc.) and merge them together into a single string. As an optional third parameter, you can add a seperator (like a space, or commas sererated).
In this case, you'd write this to use it:
=ConcatenateRange(A1:A4)
Function ConcatenateRange(ByVal cell_range As range, _
Optional ByVal separator As String) As String
Dim newString As String
Dim cell As Variant
For Each cell in cell_range
If Len(cell) <> 0 Then
newString = newString & (separator & cell)
End if
Next
If Len(newString) <> 0 Then
newString = Right$(newString, (Len(newString) - Len(separator)))
End If
ConcatenateRange = newString
End Function
Inside CONCATENATE you can use TRANSPOSE if you expand it (F9) then remove the surrounding {}brackets like this recommends
=CONCATENATE(TRANSPOSE(B2:B19))
Becomes
=CONCATENATE("Oh ","combining ", "a " ...)
You may need to add your own separator on the end, say create a column C and transpose that column.
=B1&" "
=B2&" "
=B3&" "
In simple cases you can use next method which doesn`t require you to create a function or to copy code to several cells:
In any cell write next code
=Transpose(A1:A9)
Where A1:A9 are cells you would like to merge.
Without leaving the cell press F9
After that, the cell will contain the string:
={A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9}
Source: http://www.get-digital-help.com/2011/02/09/concatenate-a-cell-range-without-vba-in-excel/
Update: One part can be ambiguous. Without leaving the cell means having your cell in editor mode. Alternatevly you can press F9 while are in cell editor panel (normaly it can be found above the spreadsheet)
Use VBA's already existing Join function. VBA functions aren't exposed in Excel, so I wrap Join in a user-defined function that exposes its functionality. The simplest form is:
Function JoinXL(arr As Variant, Optional delimiter As String = " ")
'arr must be a one-dimensional array.
JoinXL = Join(arr, delimiter)
End Function
Example usage:
=JoinXL(TRANSPOSE(A1:A4)," ")
entered as an array formula (using Ctrl-Shift-Enter).
Now, JoinXL accepts only one-dimensional arrays as input. In Excel, ranges return two-dimensional arrays. In the above example, TRANSPOSE converts the 4×1 two-dimensional array into a 4-element one-dimensional array (this is the documented behaviour of TRANSPOSE when it is fed with a single-column two-dimensional array).
For a horizontal range, you would have to do a double TRANSPOSE:
=JoinXL(TRANSPOSE(TRANSPOSE(A1:D1)))
The inner TRANSPOSE converts the 1×4 two-dimensional array into a 4×1 two-dimensional array, which the outer TRANSPOSE then converts into the expected 4-element one-dimensional array.
This usage of TRANSPOSE is a well-known way of converting 2D arrays into 1D arrays in Excel, but it looks terrible. A more elegant solution would be to hide this away in the JoinXL VBA function.
For those who have Excel 2016 (and I suppose next versions), there is now directly the CONCAT function, which will replace the CONCATENATE function.
So the correct way to do it in Excel 2016 is :
=CONCAT(A1:A4)
which will produce :
Iamaboy
For users of olders versions of Excel, the other answers are relevant.
For Excel 2011 on Mac it's different. I did it as a three step process.
Create a column of values in column A.
In column B, to the right of the first cell, create a rule that uses the concatenate function on the column value and ",". For example, assuming A1 is the first row, the formula for B1 is =B1. For the next row to row N, the formula is =Concatenate(",",A2). You end up with:
QA
,Sekuli
,Testing
,Applitools
,Visual Testing
,Test Automation
,Selenium
In column C create a formula that concatenates all previous values. Because it is additive you will get all at the end. The formula for cell C1 is =B1. For all other rows to N, the formula is =Concatenate(C1,B2). And you get:
QA,Sekuli
QA,Sekuli,Testing
QA,Sekuli,Testing,Applitools
QA,Sekuli,Testing,Applitools,Visual Testing
QA,Sekuli,Testing,Applitools,Visual Testing,Test Automation
QA,Sekuli,Testing,Applitools,Visual Testing,Test Automation,Selenium
The last cell of the list will be what you want. This is compatible with Excel on Windows or Mac.
I use the CONCATENATE method to take the values of a column and wrap quotes around them with columns in between in order to quickly populate the WHERE IN () clause of a SQL statement.
I always just type =CONCATENATE("'",B2,"'",",") and then select that and drag it down, which creates =CONCATENATE("'",B3,"'",","), =CONCATENATE("'",B4,"'",","), etc. then highlight that whole column, copy paste to a plain text editor and paste back if needed, thus stripping the row separation. It works, but again, just as a one time deal, this is not a good solution for someone who needs this all the time.
I know this is really a really old question, but I was trying to do the same thing and I stumbled upon a new formula in excel called "TEXTJOIN".
For the question, the following formula solves the problem
=TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,(a1:a4))
The signature of "TEXTJOIN" is explained as TEXTJOIN(delimiter,ignore_empty,text1,[text2],[text3],...)
I needed a general purpose Concatenate With Separator (since I don't have TEXTJOIN) so I wrote this:
Public Function ConcatWS(separator As String, ParamArray cell_range()) As String
'---concatenate with seperator
For n = LBound(cell_range) To UBound(cell_range)
For Each cell In cell_range(n)
If Len(cell) <> 0 Then
ConcatWS = ConcatWS & IIf(ConcatWS <> "", separator, "") & cell
End If
Next
Next n
End Function
Which allows us to go crazy with flexibility in including cell ranges:
=ConcatWS(" ", Fields, E1:G2, L6:M9, O6)
NOTE: "Fields" is a Named Range and the separator may be blank

Extract the last substring from a cell

I have names in a column. I need to split just the last names from that column into another column.
The last name is delimited by a space from the right side.
The contents in cell A2 = Alistair Stevens and I entered the formula in cell B2 (I need 'Stevens' in cell B2)
I tried using the following formulas:
=RIGHT(A2,FIND(" ",A2,1)-1)
=RIGHT(A2,FIND(" ",A2))
Both these formulas work for this cell but when I fill it down / copy and paste it for the cells below it doesn't work. I get the wrong values!!
A3 -> David Mckenzie
B3 -> Mckenzie
This works, even when there are middle names:
=MID(A2,FIND(CHAR(1),SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",CHAR(1),LEN(A2)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""))))+1,LEN(A2))
If you want everything BUT the last name, check out this answer.
If there are trailing spaces in your names, then you may want to remove them by replacing all instances of A2 by TRIM(A2) in the above formula.
Note that it is only by pure chance that your first formula =RIGHT(A2,FIND(" ",A2,1)-1) kind of works for Alistair Stevens. This is because "Alistair" and " Stevens" happen to contain the same number of characters (if you count the leading space in " Stevens").
The answer provided by #Jean provides a working but obscure solution (although it doesn't handle trailing spaces)
As an alternative consider a vba user defined function (UDF)
Function RightWord(r As Range) As Variant
Dim s As String
s = Trim(r.Value)
RightWord = Mid(s, InStrRev(s, " ") + 1)
End Function
Use in sheet as
=RightWord(A2)
Try this function in Excel:
Public Shared Function SPLITTEXT(Text As String, SplitAt As String, ReturnZeroBasedIndex As Integer) As String
Dim s() As String = Split(Text, SplitAt)
If ReturnZeroBasedIndex <= s.Count - 1 Then
Return s(ReturnZeroBasedIndex)
Else
Return ""
End If
End Function
You use it like this:
First Name (A1) | Last Name (A2)
Value in cell A1 = Michael Zomparelli
I want the last name in column A2.
=SPLITTEXT(A1, " ", 1)
The last param is the zero-based index you want to return. So if you split on the space char then index 0 = Michael and index 1 = Zomparelli
The above function is a .Net function, but can easily be converted to VBA.
If you want to get the second to last word in a text, you can use this macro as a function in your spreadsheet:
Public Function Get2ndText(S As String) As String
Dim sArr() As String
Dim i As Integer
sArr = Split(S, " ")
'get the next to the last string
i = UBound(sArr) - 1
Get2ndText = sArr(i)
End Function
Then in your spreadsheet B1 as the text:
CURRENT OWNER 915 BROADWAY ST HOUSTON TX 77012-2126
in B2 your formula would be:
=Get2ndText(B1)
The result would be
TX
Simpler would be:
=TRIM(RIGHT(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(A2)," ",REPT(" ",99)),99))
You can use A2 in place of TRIM(A2) if you are sure that your data doesn't contain any unwanted spaces.
Based on concept explained by Rick Rothstein:
http://www.excelfox.com/forum/showthread.php/333-Get-Field-from-Delimited-Text-String
Sorry for being necroposter!
Right(A1, Len(A1)-Find("(asterisk)",Substitute(A1, "(space)","(asterisk)",Len(A1)-Len(Substitute(A1,"(space)", "(no space)")))))
Try this. Hope it works.
Try this:
=RIGHT(TRIM(A2),LEN(TRIM(A2))-FIND(" ",TRIM(A2)))
I was able to copy/paste the formula and it worked fine.
Here is a list of Excel text functions (which worked in May 2011, and but is subject to being broken the next time Microsoft changes their website). :-(
You can use a multiple-stage-nested IF() functions to handle middle names or initials, titles, etc. if you expect them. Excel formulas do not support looping, so there are some limits to what you can do.
RIGHT return whatever number of characters in the second parameter from the right of the first parameter. So, you want the total length of your column A - subtract the index. which is therefore:
=RIGHT(A2, LEN(A2)-FIND(" ", A2, 1))
And you should consider using TRIM(A2) everywhere it appears...
Try this:
Right(RC[-1],Len(RC[-1])-InStrRev(RC[-1]," "))

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